“There is no such thing as a proposed NAFTA Superhighway,” Hayes declares.

The remainder of the article, however, shows how the Trans Texas Corridor under construction parallel to Interstate 35 is specifically designed to accommodate the steadily growing volume of NAFTA and World Trade Organization traffic pouring into Texas from China and the Far East through Mexican ports on the Pacific such as Manzanillo and L?zaro C?rdenas.

Like Hayes, the the Dallas-based trade group North America’s SuperCorridor Coalition, Inc., or NASCO, adamantly denies the superhighway.

But Hayes doesn’t mention the NAFTA Superhighway Coalition, a trade group formed July 23, 1997, to promote continental highway development in conjunction with the Ambassador Bridge.

The executive summary of the completed 1998 study noted, “Since January 1, 1994, when NAFTA went into effect, the heartland of America has become an increasingly important thoroughfare for trade among the United States, Mexico and Canada. Interstate 35 is the only interstate highway connecting Mexico, the U.S. and Canada through the heartland, and it carries a greater percentage of U.S.-Mexico trade among the NAFTA partners than any other U.S. interstate highway.”

The study referred throughout to the “I-35 Trade Corridor” as the primary focus of its analysis.

Hayes article accepts NASCO’s claim that a “North American Super Corridor” can be distinguished from a “NAFTA Superhighway.”

Yet, as WND reported, even NASCO has sharpened its denial to arguing only that there are no plans to build a new NAFTA Superhighway.

On its website, NASCO proclaims, “There are no plans to build a new NAFTA Superhighway – it exists today as I-35.”

Yet, NASCO has refused to acknowledge repeated requests by WND to reconcile its stance with the plans of the Texas Department of Transportation, or TxDOT, to build a new four-football-fields wide corridor parallel to I-35 from Laredo, Texas, in the south, to the Texas border with Oklahoma, south of Oklahoma City.

In an April 27 letter, Tiffany Melvin, NASCO’s executive director, wrote WND Books, charging, “Mr. Corsi has attempted to convince the public that there is a genuine, active governmental conspiracy to merge the sovereign nations of Mexico, the United States and Canada into a North American Union; to create a North American currency called the ‘amero’; to build a gigantic ‘NAFTA Superhighway’ through the heart of North America; and to undermine the sovereignty and strength of American governmental institutions. All these claims are baseless.”

Melvin’s letter, however, did not produce any evidence or arguments that the claims were baseless.

Further, as WND reported, in a July 21, 2006, internal e-mail obtained by WND under a Missouri Sunshine Law request, Melvin cautions “NASCO friends and members” that, “We have to stay away from ‘SuperCorridor’ because it is a very bad, hot button right now.”

This second version of the NASCO homepage showed the continental route of the I-35, 29, and 94 NASCO super corridor in muted pastel tones of beige and soft brown. The routes into Canada did not extend east to Montreal and west to Vancouver, as initially, but ended in arrows headed toward central Canada through Winnipeg.

In what appears to be the third major revamping of the NASCO website since WND first began writing about NASCO, the Dallas-based trade group carefully removes identifying NASCO with the words behind the acronym, “North America’s SuperCorridor Coalition, Inc.,” which the original NASCO website once proudly proclaimed.

WND reported Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a GOP presidential candidate, introduced an amendment to H.R. 3074, the Transportation Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2008, prohibiting the use of federal funds for participating in working groups under the Security and Prosperity Partnership, including the creation of NAFTA Superhighways.

On July 24, Hunter’s amendment passed 362 to 63, with strong bipartisan support. Later, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3074 by a margin of 368-153. The bill has been sent to the Senate with Hunter’s amendment included.

WND reported investment bankers and certain politicians have begun advancing the argument in Oklahoma that extending TTC-35 north into the state would be a desirable move to promote economic development.